Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Other bloggers have blogged on their blogs about boat names. Some are cute. Some are puzzling. Some are puns. Some are just plain weird.

Much could be said of the names chosen by players for themselves (or is it their boats) in the online virtual sailing community and racing simulator SailX.

Some of them such as Sailorski, MiamiSailing and MOTHSTER have fairly obvious inspirations.

But why BustedGristle? What does that mean?

And why did someone call himself whereiswaldo?

Of course you don't have to register and choose a name. You can sail as a guest and be temporarily allocated a name like Guest_54. It's best to keep out of the way of guests. It's usually someone who is totally clueless or some hotshot sailing anonymously to wreak havoc on his enemies. Either way they will cause you grief. But why did someone call himself UnwantedGuest?

And then there is HamB. No idea what it means. Someone took the piss out of him by creating an ID called EggsB. Strange people these sailxors.

Bluenose is a fine sailing name. Someone strange had fun at his expense by registering as Rednose. Very droll.

Some of the names are not very modest. We have SofaKingFast and BigTwingGuy for example. And the outrageously boastful SexOnThe Reach. I wonder what kind of boat he has? (I assume that 99% of players are male. Women have more sense.)

Some are a little rude... suckmywake, kissmystern and eatmybeno for example, although I'm not really sure what a "beno" is.

And others just puzzle me. Anyone know what 21minsmalone means?

And why would anyone call themselves VomitComet?

Me, I'm just tillerman. Same as here. Some of the other players even ask me about my blog (to distract me during a race usually.)

11 comments:

I'll need to give the SailX name some thought. However, it is strange that lately , you've been posting later in the day than normal. Am I on to something?Have you been sleeping late? Does Tillerwoman snore(like me), therefore preventing you from getting a sound night's sleep? Am I delusional? Or is it just the daily pressure of coming up with yet another "strange topic", thereby taking you longer and longer to submit a post? I equate your daily post to my morning coffee: It's early, it's always there, it's sweet and light, not bitter or heavy, and almost always thoroughly enjoyable. Was ist los, Herr Tillerman?

It is related to this stupid commitment I made for the NaBloPoMo thing to post something every day. Truth is that I have always generated posts at various times in the day, but I have often set them up to publish the first thing the next day. Can't remember why. I just do.

But if it happens to be 3 or 4 in the afternoon and I haven't published anything yet today, I feel like I have to publish it right away to meet the NaBloPoMo target, rather than go a day without posting.

Strange eh?

I guess it's my anal retentive obsessive compulsive nature. I think at the end of the month I will write a retrospective post on "lessons learned" from this whole NaBloPoMo experience. It's not all positive by any means.

Some of the names are partially understandable; vomit comet might be a ex-air force guy or astronaut trainee (and admitting intolerance for a rough ride in the real world?) and Mr. Malone seems to be proud of having done something or other in 21 minutes.

Thanks for a lighthearted post on what has been an unfortunately unavoidably stressful day.

Sometimes on other forums, I see a name that makes no sense to me. Later I realize it is a reference to some movie or song. Other times it is a political code referencing some obscure passage that serves as a kind of dog whistle to others who are "in the know".Newspaper comment sections are often loaded with those types of names.

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